Arctic sea ice last month reached its greatest extent for the season, and it was the lowest in the satellite record. Now researchers say that ice is also younger and thinner than it once was.
That hurts coastal communities that hunt on the ice. But colder weather may be coming, at least to some portions of Alaska.
In villages like Kongiganak, communities have stopped burying their dead because, as the permafrost melts, the oldest part of their cemetery is sinking.
Folks here are famous for being able to handle the cold, but anything wet in December has always made us nervous. Especially wet falling from the sky. Lately, weather, our favorite nemesis, has broken the rules. Our confidence in the most-trustworthy feature of the Arctic -- winter -- has been wounded.
A total of 14.7 inches of snow fell between 8 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday, barely eclipsing the previous record for the date of 14.6 inches, set in 1970.
While industry has had to adapt to changes, many locals are still struggling to find a new normal amidst the shifting seasons.
Four teams had scratched as of 7 p.m. Saturday because of the icy conditions, said Kuskokwim 300 race director Madelene Reichard. "It's the same thing for all of them," Reichard said. "The dogs aren't used to running on the ice, and people were wanting to keep their dogs healthy."
A new study estimates that climate impacts to public infrastructure in Alaska will total about $5 billion by century's end.
The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy calculated that, as of Wednesday, a total of 0.7 inches of snow had fallen at Fairbanks International Airport, making this the least snowy year here since 1926.
A borough employee who went to measure ice at Chena Lake got first-hand evidence that the lake ice ready for vehicles. “Lo and behold, there was a truck upside down on the bottom in about 25 feet of water,” Haas said. “No one was in it.”
The storm that walloped Southcentral Alaska also left about 32 inches of snow in Moose Pass and 30 in Seward.
The tragedy came after several days of dire warnings about the dangers of river travel due to an unusually early warm-up. Search and rescuers crawled onto weak ice, open water all around, to help retrieve the survivors.
“You could take your sailboat and sail from Dillingham all the way to Little Diomede and never see much more than an ice cube.
A GCI cell tower in Western Alaska encapsulated in unusually thick ice and snow has caused service disruptions in villages.
No one was hurt when a slab avalanche buried one child and partially buried two others.
The cold and wet hunters built a fire to keep warm until Alaska Army National Guard rescuers arrived hours later.
Alaskas tundra landscapes carpet a good portion of the state, from the North Slope to the elbow of the Alaska Peninsula. Researchers say it's slowly sinking in places -- as much as a fifth of an inch each year.
Though snow is scant in Anchorage, organizers are confident they will be able to host the Jan. 3-8 race series.
Because ice makes up a good portion of the underground foundation of northern Alaska, thawing has dropped the landscape as much as 3 feet in some places.
Winds of up to 85 mph ripped up the Southwest Alaska coast on Friday, upending smokehouses, tearing electric lines and flinging a house across the road.
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